JEDDAH, 24 December 2003 — Haj pilgrims from India start arriving from today, with the first Air-India flight carrying 410 pilgrims from Calicut scheduled to land at 2.05 p.m. Ambassador Kamaluddin Ahmed and Consul General Syed Akbaruddin will welcome them.
The flight will be followed by two others from Srinagar with 415 pilgrims in all, and a fourth flight from Lucknow with 200 pilgrims.
Some 115,000 Indian pilgrims will perform Haj this year. Of these more than 70,000 are coming through the Haj Committee of India (HCI) and the rest through private tour operators or are Indian nationals resident in third countries.
A staggering 254 flights are being operated from 11 Indian departure points — Air-India operating 140 flights carrying 38,200 pilgrims and Saudi Arabian Airlines 114 flights bringing 32,800 pilgrims.
“The destinations in India remain the same as last year,” Ambassador Ahmed told a press conference at the Consulate General of India here yesterday. The last post-Haj flight will leave on March 7.
The departure-arrival points in India serviced by Saudi Arabian Airlines are Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The airlines will give pilgrims complimentary 10-liter zamzam canisters at their destinations.
All HCI pilgrims will stay in Makkah. A total of 345 buildings have been hired in three categories within a kilometer from the periphery of the Holy Haram to accommodate about 69,000 pilgrims. The remaining pilgrims have arranged accommodation in several Indian rubats that exist in Makkah and Madinah or will stay as guests of relatives who live in the Kingdom.
In Madinah, nine contractors provide accommodation for all pilgrims in eight-day cycles. There are no categories of accommodation in Madinah, and all pilgrims in the holy city stay within 850 meters of the Prophet’s Mosque. From Saturday, 34,000 pilgrims will visit Madinah prior to Haj while the rest will perform the “ziarah” after Haj.
Ahmed said 23 mutawafeen would serve Indian pilgrims. “The allocation of pilgrims to various maktabs has been completed with the South Asian Moassassa,” he said.
A team of 215 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other paramedics has already arrived and will man eight clinics and a 20-bed hospital in Makkah and four clinics in Madinah.
“This is a 10 percent increase in medical professionals over last year,” he said, adding that 8.5 million rupees worth of medicines have also been delivered for use in the two holy cities.
A 24-hour control room is already up and running in Jeddah (Tel. 653-3032). Similar round-the-clock arrangements will be in place at the Haj Terminal, Makkah and Madinah.
The age of incoming pilgrims averages 56 years. The maximum number will come from Uttar Pradesh (11,663), followed by Maharashtra 8,974, Jammu & Kashmir 8,948 and Kerala 7,623. Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman account for 6 and 9 pilgrims respectively.
The number of deaths among Indian pilgrims came down in the past three years to 167 last year.
